The heartwrenching New York Times bestseller about the only known person born inside a North Korean prison camp to have escaped. Blaine Harden's latest book, King of Spies, will be available from Viking in Fall 2017.

North Korea’s political prison camps have existed twice as long as Stalin’s Soviet gulags and twelve times as long as the Nazi concentration camps. No one born and raised in these camps is known to have escaped. No one, that is, except Shin Dong-hyuk.

In Escape From Camp 14, Blaine Harden unlocks the secrets of the world’s most repressive totalitarian state through the story of Shin’s shocking imprisonment and his astounding getaway. Shin knew nothing of civilized existence—he saw his mother as a competitor for food, guards raised him to be a snitch, and he witnessed the execution of his mother and brother.

The late “Dear Leader” Kim Jong Il was recognized throughout the world, but his country remains sealed as his third son and chosen heir, Kim Jong Eun, consolidates power. Few foreigners are allowed in, and few North Koreans are able to leave. North Korea is hungry, bankrupt, and armed with nuclear weapons. It is also a human rights catastrophe. Between 150,000 and 200,000 people work as slaves in its political prison camps. These camps are clearly visible in satellite photographs, yet North Korea’s government denies they exist.

Harden’s harrowing narrative exposes this hidden dystopia, focusing on an extraordinary young man who came of age inside the highest security prison in the highest security state. Escape from Camp 14 offers an unequalled inside account of one of the world’s darkest nations. It is a tale of endurance and courage, survival and hope.

From radio to scores of TV and movie soundtracks, Artie Kane’s music has touched and inspired millions of people.

In his newly released memoir, "Music To My Years: Life and Love Between the Notes," he captures the romantic as well as the unrelenting perfectionism demanded in the entertainment industry. Mr. Kane conducted scores for over 60 motion pictures, wrote music for over 250 television shows ("Wonder Woman," "Vegas," "Loveboat," "Hotel," "Dynasty," "Matlock," "Question of Guilt," "Man Against the Mob") and seven motion pictures, such as "Looking for Mr. Goodbar," "Eyes of Laura Mars," "Night of the Juggler," and "Wrong Is Right."

Artie Kane, with candor and acerbic wit, recounts his quest to find love through eight marriages as he pursued his dreams as a pianist. His memoir is infused with provocative and poignant stories about the celebrities he worked with and gives an insider's look at Hollywood culture, films, and TV shows of the last five decades. "Music to My Years" captures the romantic as well as the rough-hewn and unrelentingly perfectionist sides of the world of professional entertainment. For the love of music, and in quest of love through eight marriages, Artie reimagines his dreams, and with characteristic candor and acerbic wit, proves that the American landscape thrives as a place for misfits who follow their dreams to success.

"Music to My Years" is also the story of the ever-changing world of professional entertainment, told by an artist whose talents helped to define the transformative era. This memoir will delight and inform lovers of music, fans of Hollywood culture and films, and devotees of TV shows of the last five decades. This story will resonate with anyone who has pursued a dream or struggled to find true love.

Have you ever wanted More? 
 
Not more stuff . . . or success . . . or fame . . . but more intimacy, more connection, more mystery, more awe. When Mariah McKenzie finds her husband and best friend in bed together, she is launched on a forbidding and transcendent journey.  
 
Reeling from a life turned upside down, Mariah and her husband, Jake, resolve to search together for a deeper connection--for more. They decide to participate in Margot Anand's Year-Long Love and Ecstasy (aka "Tantra") Training. As they delve into sacred sexuality together, they learn sex is a doorway not only to physical and emotional intimacy, but also to the divine mystery of life. Mariah glimpses a different reality, which includes wildly mystical moments replete with astounding visions and prophetic dreams. The awakening, however, also releases repressed memories of childhood trauma. As Jake helps her navigate these experiences, they open more fully to one another and rekindle their trust.
 
Mariah begins to see life from a deeper perspective. Mariah's inner journey becomes a kind of striptease, at first exposing fear, anxiety and victim identity, but ultimately revealing a woman, who revels in saying, "yes" to Life with its sacred as well as profane moments.
 
More is a love story, a healing story, a spiritual adventure.

Six Years at the Russian Court is the enlightening memoir of Margaret Eager - an Irishwoman from Limerick who served as a nanny to the Russian royal family from 1898 to 1904.

Originally published in 1906, the book captures Eager’s years as governess to the four daughters of the Emperor and Empress Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna: the Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia. All of whom would be executed during the Russian civil war just over a decade later.

This first-person account provides a fascinating insight into what was everyday life for the Romanov family. From religious celebrations and family illness to assassination attempts and life during the war; Eager’s central role gained her access to some of the family’s most precious and testing times.

In addition to documenting the time spent with her royal employers, Eager also reveals intriguing aspects of Russian society as whole. Through a series of anecdotal references she includes recollections of her time in Russia regarding such things as the tough life of the peasantry, criminal activity and even the national post service.

This classic, written from the unsuspecting eyes of a foreign nanny, shows early twentieth century Russia and the last Russian royal family like you’ve never seen before.

Margaret Eager (1863-1936) left the Russia in 1904 and returned to Ireland where she received a pension from the Russian government for her time as a nurse. She kept in contact with the family she had known so well right up to their brutal deaths in 1918. Eager’s family stated that she never fully recovered from the news.

Albion Press is an imprint of Endeavour Press, the UK's leading independent digital publisher. For more information on our titles please sign up to our newsletter at www.endeavourpress.com. Each week you will receive updates on free and discounted ebooks. Follow us on Twitter: @EndeavourPress and on Facebook via http://on.fb.me/1HweQV7. We are always interested in hearing from our readers. Endeavour Press believes that the future is now.

The public have been surfeited with war literature. There is hardly a prominent officer North or South who has not rushed into print at every available opportunity; yet no officer high in rank dared write the exact truth, for the reason he has the feelings, the self-love and the reputations of those who served under him to consider.

During the Civil War, many soldiers on both sides kept diaries of their daily experiences, but very few of these encompassed the entire four years of conflict. This diary of Alexander Hunter, first published in 1905, is a notable exception. Drawing on notes he made during service, Hunter’s account provides a profoundly honest and memorable narrative of the incidents of camp life.

A soldier in Lee’s army from 1861 to 1865, Hunter recounts in splendid detail his extraordinary experiences from the outbreak of hostilities to the final surrender at Appomattox. Here are his dramatic, first-hand accounts of the fighting at Bull Run, Seven Pines, Second Manassas, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and the Wilderness. Describing the early exchanges of prisoners in the war and the aloof yet mutual respect which existed between soldiers of the Union and the Confederacy, Johnny Reb and Billy Yank provides a thrilling and thorough narrative of this pivotal period.

Also included are Hunter’s vivid recollections of life in the barracks, the hardships of winter quarters, the deadly art of sharpshooting, his capture by the enemy and daring escape, the ordeals of prison camps and hospitals, raiding parties, and many other aspects of the conflict.

Alexander Hunter (1843-1914) was a Confederate soldier and author who served during the American Civil war. Born in Virginia to Lt. Bushrod Washington Hunter and Mary Frances, he grew up on Abingdon plantation, a site which is now D.C. National (Ronald Reagan) airport. He is also the author of The huntsman in the South and The women of the debatable land.

"It is not my intention in my prison diary to discuss the constitutional or legal question of arbitrary arrests and imprisonment of non-combatants, but to present to my readers a picture of the daily routine of prison life as I saw it, together with incidents related to me by fellow-prisoners..."

Originally published in 1911, James J. Williamson's Prison Life in the Old Capitol tracks his time served as a prisoner in the Old Capitol Prison in Washington D.C during the time of the American Civil War. Throughout this memoir, Williamson presents a true picture of the daily life and routine observed by those in the prison as William himself saw it. William’s diary of prison life is given added scope through his appended facts concerning the treatment of prisoners of war during the period, claiming that in giving a frank and honest account prejudice and hostile feeling may be overcome and a reunion may be achieved by ‘all those who have the peace and prosperity of the country at heart’. Were these the true intentions of the memoir? Or did Williamson pen the work as a propagandist celebration of the Confederate lives lost and a damnation of the North’s actions following their victory? Read on, and decide for yourself…

James J. Williamson was one of Mosby's Rangers in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War, who was arrested and imprisoned for a stint in Old Capitol prison. His other works include the often studied part-Confederate memoir, part-biography of the 43rd Battalion Virginia Cavalry, Mosby’s Rangers.

Albion Press is an imprint of Endeavour Press, the UK's leading independent digital publisher. For more information on our titles please sign up to our newsletter at www.endeavourpress.com. Each week you will receive updates on free and discounted ebooks. Follow us on Twitter: @EndeavourPress and on Facebook via http://on.fb.me/1HweQV7. We are always interested in hearing from our readers. Endeavour Press believes that the future is now.

From 1861 to 1865 the American Civil War ravaged the United States.

The Battle of Gettysburg was the turning point for the Confederate and Federal armies.

Between 1st and 3rd of July, 1863, over 175,000 men raged into battle in the bloodiest conflict of the entire war. Over 46,000 of them men were killed, captured, wounded or missing.

General Robert Lee was a top graduate from the United States Military Academy and the son of an Officer. He was known for winning most of his battles and he led the confederate forces in to the Pennsylvania town of Gettysburg. His aim was to penetrate the northern states to try and win the war.

General Meade fronted the Army of the Potomac, supporting the Union defence, and the small town of Gettysburg became the battle ground for the future of the USA.

Written by John J. Garnett, one of the soldiers serving for General Lee in the Confederate army, this is a descriptive and personal view of one the of most important battles in the American Civil War.

‘Their only thought was victory, and it inspired them with a valor that was almost superhuman, and, as they saw the enemy slowly waver before their terrific onset, the famed rebel yell went up in a mighty paean of triumph above the thunder of musketry and artillery, which seemed to make the very air tremble with its burden of sound.’

This first hand memoir of the historic Battle of Gettysburg is an insightful and sobering story of the hundreds of thousands of men who marched bravely in to battle that forged the United States of America.

John James Garnett was born on March 30, 1839 in Virginia and was the son of Colonel Henry Thomas Garnett and Eliza Stuart Bankhead. Garnett was scheduled to graduate from West Point with the class of 1861, but resigned to join the Confederacy. Joining the famous New Orleans unit, the Washington Artillery, he was made a lieutenant. He was in charge of the Confederate artillery at the Battle of Gettysburg. Garnett committed suicide on September 10, 1902 in New York City.

Albion Press is an imprint of Endeavour Press, the UK's leading independent digital publisher. For more information on our titles please sign up to our newsletter at www.endeavourpress.com. Each week you will receive updates on free and discounted ebooks. Follow us on Twitter: @EndeavourPress and on Facebook via http://on.fb.me/1HweQV7. We are always interested in hearing from our readers. Endeavour Press believes that the future is now.

A citizen-soldier of honest mind, a “gentleman unafraid.”

Although opposed to secession, in 1861, shortly after Virginia broke away from the Union, Blackford nevertheless enlisted in the First Regiment of Virginia Cavalry.

A Civil Engineer by profession, by war’s end Blackford had risen from a Lieutenant of Cavalry to Lieutenant Colonel of Engineers.

His skills were valuable in both of these branches of the army, and as a result War Years is unusually filled with the day-to-day accomplishments of the Engineer Troops.

From Jeb Stuart’s side, Blackford observed nearly all the operations of mounted troops from June, 1861, to the end of January, 1864, when he was transferred to other responsibilities.

Brought into contact with a number of legendary figures, in April, 1865, Blackford was at Appomattox when General Lee surrendered.

Alongside descriptions of battles, raids and sieges are the stories of army life — little details and incidents that walk hand-in-hand with soldiering — in a thrilling yet eye-opening memoir of the American Civil War.

Lieut.-Colonel William Willis Blackford (1831-1905) was an officer in the Confederate States Army during the Civil War. It was his mother who encouraged him to write down his experiences while they were still fresh in his mind, and War Years with Jeb Stuart was the result.

Albion Press is an imprint of Endeavour Press, the UK's leading independent digital publisher. For more information on our titles please sign up to our newsletter at www.endeavourpress.com. Each week you will receive updates on free and discounted ebooks. Follow us on Twitter: @EndeavourPress and on Facebook via http://on.fb.me/1HweQV7. We are always interested in hearing from our readers. Endeavour Press believes that the future is now.

"Every experience God gives us . . . is the perfect preparation for the future only He can see."--Corrie ten Boom

Corrie ten Boom was a Dutch watchmaker who became a heroine of the Resistance, a survivor of Hitler's concentration camps, and one of the most remarkable evangelists of the twentieth century. In World War II she and her family risked their lives to help Jews and underground workers escape from the Nazis, and for their work they were tested in the infamous Nazi death camps. Only Corrie among her family survived to tell the story of how faith ultimately triumphs over evil.

Here is the riveting account of how Corrie and her family were able to save many of God's chosen people. For 35 years millions have seen that there is no pit so deep that God's love is not deeper still. Now The Hiding Place, repackaged for a new generation of readers, continues to declare that God's love will overcome, heal, and restore.

"A groundbreaking book that shines a clear light on one of the darkest moments of history."--Philip Yancey, author, The Jesus I Never Knew

"Ten Boom's classic is even more relevant to the present hour than at the time of its writing. We . . . need to be inspired afresh by the courage manifested by her family."--Jack W. Hayford, president, International Foursquare Church; chancellor, The King's College and Seminary

"The Hiding Place is a classic that begs revisiting. Corrie ten Boom lived the deeper life with God. Her gripping story of love in action will challenge and inspire you!"--Joyce Meyer, best-selling author and Bible teacher

"Mountaineering is the first real literature of the Sierra, and, as a book of familiar travels in unfamiliar places in America, it brooks no equal." Pacific Historian

Clarence King was an internationally renowned explorer, famous for exposing a great diamond hoax.

He was a great pioneer and highly regarded in his time.

This tale from his younger years gives some insight into the mind of this controversial figure in American history.

In his own words, hear how this troubled man and his team mapped the treacherous Sierra mountains.

Rather than a dry account of pure events, the text is imbibed with a sense of wonder and adventure.

The writing is beautiful and compelling: over an over, King finds beauty in the worst conditions.

King comes across as likeable and optimistic, which makes the perils and dangers that he undergoes seem all the more important and questions the assumptions we might have about his life.

Ascending and descending mountains, fighting wind and hail and snow, surviving terrifying storms, King was an extraordinary man.

He led a life that was radical and challenging but which has captivated the minds of historians for many years.

In this book is an incredible journey - one of great personal risk but which reveals the richness of the early American landscape.

King was a young man at the time, mapping a young America, but at times he seems to step out of his own time and address the reader, asking us to question our perceptions.

His youthful optimism is contagious and his work helps us to make more sense of the life of Clarence King.

This autobiographical account is an instant classic – beautifully written – that weaves past and present together.

"Scientifically accurate as well as charmingly descriptive of the region." James D. Hart, The Oxford Companion to American Literature

"A fine book . . . [that] will please the mountain climber and allow him to enjoy his precarious pastime within the safe confines of his armchair." New York Times

Clarence King (1842-1901) was an American geologist, mountaineer, and author. He served as the first director of the United States Geological Survey from 1879 to 1881. King was noted for his exploration of the Sierra Nevada.

Albion Press is an imprint of Endeavour Press, the UK's leading independent digital publisher. For more information on our titles please sign up to our newsletter at www.endeavourpress.com. Each week you will receive updates on free and discounted ebooks. Follow us on Twitter: @EndeavourPress and on Facebook via http://on.fb.me/1HweQV7. We are always interested in hearing from our readers. Endeavour Press believes that the future is now.

Kimberly Rae Miller is an immaculately put-together woman with a great career, a loving boyfriend, and a beautifully tidy apartment in Brooklyn. You would never guess that behind the closed doors of her family’s idyllic Long Island house hid teetering stacks of aging newspaper, broken computers, and boxes upon boxes of unused junk festering in every room—the product of her father’s painful and unending struggle with hoarding.

In this dazzling memoir, Miller brings to life her experience growing up in a rat-infested home, hiding her father’s shameful secret from friends for years, and the emotional burden that ultimately led to her suicide attempt. In beautiful prose, Miller sheds light on her complicated yet loving relationship with her parents, which has thrived in spite of the odds.

Coming Clean is a story about recognizing where you come from and understanding the relationships that define you. It is also a powerful story of recovery and redemption.

“To those bred under an elaborate social order few such moments of exhilaration can come as that which stands at the threshold of wild travel.”

In 1905 the Ottoman Empire’s rule in its chief province, greater Syria, was drawing precariously towards its close.

Remaining unfazed by hardship or convention, Gertrude Bell, the daughter of an industrialist and land owner, set off on her journey across the region’s interior.

During the months that followed, Bell grew to understand and respect the Arab peoples to a degree that few ever have, travelling further than any western woman before her.

Although in a place with gender roles so clearly defined, Bell was welcomed at the coffee hearth, like a male guest, able to engage with them on the matters that interested her most.

The Desert and the Sown is an account of those people Bell met or that accompanied her, showing what the world in which they lived was like and how it appeared to them, bringing to life the desert landscape and culture for a western world fascinated by the Orient.

Gertrude Bell (1868-1926) was an English writer, traveller, archaeologist, and political officer. In her lifetime she explored Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia, and Persia. A contemporary of T. E. Lawrence, she worked for the Arab Bureau in Cairo during the First World War and became influential in British Imperial policy making, helping establish the Hashemite dynasties. To this day she is still remembered in Iraq.

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749-1832) was Germany’s greatest literary figure.

Poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, critic, and amateur artist, Goethe was the central and unsurpassed representative of the Romantic movement.

Goethe’s education was irregular; he went to no school, and his father stimulated rather than instructed him. But the atmosphere in which he was surrounded gave him, perhaps, the best education he could have received.

His home was a cultivated one. From his father he derived the steadfastness of character which enabled him to pursue an independent career of self-culture and devotion to art; from his mother he inherited the flow of language and love of narration, without which he could not have been a poet.

By the age of eight he had a grasp of Greek, Latin, French, and Italian and at sixteen he went to Leipzig University to study law.

Already a successful playwright, at the age of 25 the publication of his novel ‘The Sorrows of Young Werther’ brought him world-wide success, and cemented his literary career.

His masterpiece, ‘Faust’, still one of the most famous works of European literature, became a life-long project. Starting work on it at the age of twenty-three, it wasn’t ready for publication until after his death.

Oscar Browning’s classic biography explores Goethe’s fascinating life, using biographical details to analyse his literature. This short biography is the perfect starting point for anybody interested in Goethe’s life and works.

Oscar Browning (1837 –1923) was an English writer, historian, and educational reformer. His greatest achievement was the cofounding, along with Henry Sidgwick, of the Cambridge University Day Training College in 1891. This was one of the earliest institutions in Great Britain to focus on the training of educators, preempted only by the founding of the Cambridge Teaching College for Women by Elizabeth Hughes in 1885.

Albion Press is an imprint of Endeavour Press, the UK's leading independent digital publisher. For more information on our titles please sign up to our newsletter at www.endeavourpress.com. Each week you will receive updates on free and discounted ebooks. Follow us on Twitter: @EndeavourPress and on Facebook via http://on.fb.me/1HweQV7. We are always interested in hearing from our readers. Endeavour Press believes that the future is now.

“This first-hand acquaintance with Thoreau and his friends lends an authority to Sanborn's writings, and… he was able to put into print many details of Thoreau's life that would otherwise have been lost.” — Walter Harding, A Thoreau Handbook

“Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.”

This personal biography is a great insight into the life of a great man. Journalist, abolitionist, philosopher, and poet, Henry David Thoreau lived a fascinating life surrounded by great figures, including Ralph Waldo Emerson.

As a lifelong abolitionist, Thoreau delivered many lectures that attacked the Fugitive Slave law. His most famous work, Civil Disobedience, has been the basis of many protest movements all around the world, influencing the political manifestos of figures like Leo Tolstoy, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr.

Frank B. Sanborn’s biography is informal and affectionate, coming from a man who knew Thoreau and moved in his circles. It relies not on Thoreau’s reputation, but on the words of his friends, family, and Thoreau’s own personal letters.

This biography is a chance for readers to get an idea of the man behind the myth, perhaps more than any academic biography could. Far from the dry accounts of his life, Sanborn’s Henry David Thoreau is a biography with heart.

Frank B. Sanborn (1831 –1917) was an American journalist, author, and reformer. A memorialist of American transcendentalism, Sanborn wrote early biographies of many of the movement's key figures.

Edgar Allan Poe, author, poet, literary critic and editor, was born in Boston, January 19, 1809. His parents, Elizabeth Arnold and David Poe, were both actors who separated shortly after his birth.

By the age of 2, Edgar was alone and semi-destitute with his siblings Henry and Rosalie – David remained an absent father and Elizabeth died tragically from tuberculosis, alone on a straw bed while her children looked on helplessly.

This uncertainty and instability were patterns that continued throughout Poe’s life, mimicked in his art. Catastrophe, insanity, excess, dereliction and depression would haunt him whilst informing the psychological horror of his wildly popular tales and poems of horror and mystery, including ‘The Fall of the House of the Usher’, ‘The Raven’ and ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’.

Poe heralded a new interpretation of the Gothic form in American fiction and his genius and artistic prowess remain iconic. Yet his extraordinary life has frequently been the subject of conflicting, doubtful and contested information.

Carefully documenting one of the most flawed, troubled and fascinating figures in literary history, a man of letters, philosophy, art and science, Woodberry presents a rare and in-depth account of Poe’s family background.

Including personal correspondence and private notes, this is an elegant and mesmerising biography documenting Poe’s greatest eccentricities, achievements, affairs and sorrows.

George Edward Woodberry (1855-1930) was an American literary critic and poet. Born in Massachusetts, he studied at Harvard University. His other titles include the biographies Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Swinburne.

“This book is more than the story of two French soldiers, although that story is worth telling by reason of the strange inversion of their two careers. For one of them surrendered Metz in 1870 and was sentenced to death, while the other surrendered France in 1940 and was sentenced to become its ruler. The first Marshal was made a scapegoat by his defeated country; and when the second Marshal came to power, the scapegoat was France.”

François Bazaine and Henri Petain are two of France’s most famous generals.

Bazaine joined the Foreign Legion in 1832, a time when standards were reasonably poor. Their expeditions often took them miles away from home, so requests to travel to lands afar from King Louis Phillipe were expected. From the beginning of his career, Bazaine’s dedication, and hard work were noted. His position of Mariscal had not been an easy achievement, he’d risen through the ranks, only for his country to betray him.

Surrendering at Metz, Mariscal Bazaine became a scapegoat when France was defeated in the Franco-Prussian War.

Bazaine was held captive for a while, and on his return, he realised he’d been put forth as a scapegoat.

Immediately, he launched into clearing his name, but was then given a life-sentence, much to the repulsion of Mac-Mahon, who’d served with Bazaine in the Foreign Legion.

Marshal Petain’s life was elusive, only for the sake of preserving his objectivity.

Marshal Petain was raised and educated in his hometown. Hardened by regimental life, Petain joined the 3rd Chasseurs as lieutenant in 1884, a time when Paris was going through its rousing years.

In 1916, Petain’s heroic capabilities were put to the test, and he succeeded. Verdun was under attack from the Germans and Verdun’s defence was placed at the hands of Petain.

It seemed the Germans intended the attack to draw innumerable French forces to the protection of Verdun, thereby weakening its army.

But this was not Petain’s view.

He saw beyond what others were seeing. His reputation was sealed through his success at Verdun.

Through a twist of fate, Petain was sentenced to death for treason on his return to France from Germany; a fate he was pardoned from due to his service.

The Birth of Venus, Primavera, The Adoration of the Magi.

Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, commonly known as Sandro Botticelli, created some of the most beautiful pieces of art the world has ever seen.

Born into a period of greatness for Florentine art he flourished under the patronage of Lorenzo de’ Medici.

Art historian Robert Henry Hobart Cust's concise work uncovers the depth of Botticelli’s work.

Cust provides an overview of Botticelli’s life in the context of Lorenzo de Medici’s patronage, Dante Alighieri’s friendship, Michelangelo’s competition and Girolamo Savonarola’s revolutionary sermons.

But mostly the weight of this study is placed on Botticelli’s art; how his invention demonstrates itself, how his conception of the figure is demonstrated and how he created some of the most interesting paintings of the early Renaissance.

Where possible art referenced in the work have been linked to and are visible as high definition images for anyone with an eReader with web browsing capabilities.

Robert Henry Hobart Cust (1861-1940) was an art historian of the Italian Renaissance and Sienna. After attending Eton, he studied at Trinity College, Cambridge and Magdalen College Oxford he published his first major work on Il Sodoma, Giovanni Antonio Bazzi. In subsequent years, Cust had to fend off reviewers who found - as Cust did himself - Sodoma's subject matter and lifestyle immoral. After writing books on Botticelli and Da Vinci he issued his own translation of an abbreviated version of the life of Benvenuto Cellini, based on a newer edition of the Italian. He served in the RAF during World War I.

Albion Press is an imprint of Endeavour Press, the UK's leading independent digital publisher. For more information on our titles please sign up to our newsletter at www.endeavourpress.com. Each week you will receive updates on free and discounted ebooks. Follow us on Twitter: @EndeavourPress and on Facebook via http://on.fb.me/1HweQV7. We are always interested in hearing from our readers. Endeavour Press believes that the future is now.

‘The catastrophe of the fall of Rome, with all that its fall signified to the fifth century, came very near to accomplishment in the third. There was a long period when it seemed as though nothing could save the Empire. Her prestige sank to the vanishing point. Her armies had forgotten what it was to win a victory over a foreign enemy. Her Emperors were worthless and incapable. On every side the frontiers were being pierced and the barriers were giving way...’

Constantine the Great is a fascinating and in depth historical examination of the reorganisation of the Empire after its catastrophic fall, and the subsequent triumph of the Christian Church.

Firth, in a grounded approach to the period, questions whether Constantine really did deserve his epithet ‘the Great’ in real life, leaving it to his readers to make up their own minds.

What he does assert, though, is that under Constantine’s auspices, one of the most momentous upheavals in history took place. Constantine’s conversion to Christianity – the first of any Roman Emperor – caused shockwaves across the Roman world, and it is this that makes this period such an exciting and important area of study.

John B. Firth, a scholar of Queen’s College, Oxford, authored several other titles including Augusts Caesar, studied closely vast and numerous original authorities, all of whom, he jokes, ‘were bitter and malevolent partisans’. With the truth thus so distorted by personal agendas and decayed through the annals of time, Firth made it his priority to meticulously research with an impartial eye in order to produce the most historically accurate account. Constantine the Great is wonderful feat of scholarship, and a must-read for any Roman enthusiast.


Albion Press is an imprint of Endeavour Press, the UK's leading independent digital publisher. For more information on our titles please sign up to our newsletter at www.endeavourpress.com. Each week you will receive updates on free and discounted ebooks. Follow us on Twitter: @EndeavourPress and on Facebook via http://on.fb.me/1HweQV7. We are always interested in hearing from our readers. Endeavour Press believes that the future is now.

“He had climbed to power over the dead bodies of those who stood in his path.”

When Julius Cæsar died there were two men who could have succeeded him: Antonius and Augustus.

For a while it seemed as though both could rule together, but when Antonius started his affair with Cleopatra, his hold on the reigns of Rome grew weaker and allowed Augustus to take control.

A complex man, Augustus was in turn both a womaniser and a puritan, a politician and a dictator, a soldier and a peace-maker.

His reign began with bloodshed but it ushered in a new world.

In this book, John B. Firth will introduce you to a man of conviction, of strength, of arrogance and tyranny.

And you will meet Augustus Cæsar, a man whose thirst for power drove him to become the most powerful man on earth.

The man who took Rome from a city to an Empire.

‘In all history there is no more patriotic spirit, none more intrepid, and none more pure.’

One of the most eminent of all British statesmen, William Pitt the Younger was born in 1759, he went up to Cambridge aged thirteen with a love of classical literature. In fact he went on to hold the Parliament seat for the University of Cambridge.

In his early days in Parliament he sparred with historians, statesmen and ministers, gaining a reputation as a debater and politician who could challenge the coalition between Whigs and Tories.

Pitt watched as France was beset by revolution, but his focus was on domestic affairs, as Lord Rosebery writes of ‘the most strenuous peace-minister...He had, indeed, to restore vital warmth and consistence to the shattered fragments of empire.’ To this end, Pitt pursued neutrality and peace, but was nonetheless drawn into war against his will.

Defeating opponents including Fox and Shelburne, Pitt the Younger was Prime Minister of England for eighteen years, during the reign of King George III. He set in place a regent to rule England while George was mad.

Pitt dealt with Ireland throughout his Prime Ministership, attempting to find a solution to the Catholic question in a way many other statesmen would have shirked from handling. He also attended to British tax affairs, oversaw the famous Sinking Fund, and sent expeditions to Australia.

Lord Rosebery includes Pitt’s letters to friends such as Lord Wellesley, which reveal a kind and generous leader who was forced to resign from his position due to the Irish problem and pained relations with the King.

Soon after he was called back to Prime Ministership in a shorter, more difficult tenure, which is briefly recorded here.

Lord Rosebery’s fine biography truly demonstrates that Pitt was ‘the embodiment and watchword of British determination’.

Archibald Primrose, Lord Rosebery (7 May 1847 – 21 May 1929), was a Liberal British Prime Minister for just over a year (1894-5) and wrote biographies of Napoleon and Lord Randolph Churchill. Rosebery is reputed to have said that he had three aims in life: to win the Derby, to marry an heiress, and to become Prime Minister. He managed all three.

Albion Press is an imprint of Endeavour Press, the UK's leading independent digital publisher. For more information on our titles please sign up to our newsletter at www.endeavourpress.com. Each week you will receive updates on free and discounted ebooks. Follow us on Twitter: @EndeavourPress and on Facebook via http://on.fb.me/1HweQV7. We are always interested in hearing from our readers. Endeavour Press believes that the future is now.